zews: "Twistzz is a bad IGL and Liquid should get siuhy instead of ultimate"*

Liquid's former skipper hopped on Snake and Banter to tell all about how relationships in his lineup broke down and why that makes Twistzz a poor leadership candidate.

Eight months after he departed Liquid, Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado has revealed new details about how relationships collapsed on the Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller iteration of the roster and why he believes it makes Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken unsuitable to be a leader on the latest episode of Snake and Banter.

The podcast, which features Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields and Alex "⁠Mauisnake⁠" Ellenberg as hosts and uses a "Good, Bad, and Ugly" format to discuss topics, featured a nearly hour-long discussion on zews' bad point that Twistzz is not a good in-game leader and that the team should replace Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak with Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek.

The Brazilian skipper revealed that the "very big fight" that he pointed towards as the moment that everything started to unravel in a previous interview with HLTV was between Twistzz and cadiaN and happened three weeks before the PGL Copenhagen Major Americas RMR.

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zews interview: Liquid's issues, cadiaN's leadership, and future

Despite zews' efforts to help resolve the issues, he said the Canadian couldn't have an honest conversation with the Dane to pinpoint what his issues with him were.

"I'm starting to get fed up because I see that we're not saying what the reason is like, 'Oh, I don't like your calling, I don't like this,' and the reason that I know is that Russ told us that he doesn't like how Casper is as a human, that he does some shit," zews says.

"I'm like, 'You dislike the guy on a personal level and you can't even tell him that, so how the fuck are we going to do this shit?' It's a cluster-fuck."

zews expressed his sadness about how things turned out with Twistzz, whom he helped recruit to Liquid in 2017, and said that the way he handled that conflict and its aftermath —detailed in full in the podcast — didn't lend to being a good leader.

"I don't think he's going to be a good leader because leadership is leadership, you have to talk to people, you have to be straightforward, you have to convince them.

"A good leader has people who follow them because it makes sense, not because it's forced or because it's 'my way.' Blind followers really don't work in my humble opinion."

He later added that he hopes Twistzz can prove him wrong, and implored Liquid to take control out of players' hands.

"I don't think he's going to be good. Can he be? Please try, prove me wrong, I'd love to make something funny out of this, it'll be water [under the bridge]. If not, learn to be better because right now it's not a good enough job, that's my opinion.

"And for Liquid, don't be an organization where your back is against the wall. You're one of the biggest orgs in the world, how the fuck are you run by a kid? That's insane."

zews also reveals how Liquid learned too late of the opportunity to sign Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz instead of Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros, how Twistzz considered leaving for Vitality, and about how conversations to sign Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets or Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski were shut down in the full podcast, which you can listen to here.

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*Update February 7, 13:21 : Victor "Nazgul" Goossens, co-CEO of Team Liquid, has issued a rebuttal on X to some of zews' comments:

"I’m obviously really sad to hear and read all the things zews said about Twistzz yesterday," he began.

"1) Most of this is just roster stuff which inherently comes down to flawed personal perspectives, and as long as we are dealing with individuals who cannot accept their own mistakes the objectivity will be far from present. The perspectives from others including mine will be 180 degrees opposite on some of these points.

"2) There is no doubt, no question that Twistzz paid for those NBA tickets himself and to hint or suggest anything else is really not okay.

"3) While Russel has the experience and credibility to be a valued voice at Liquid, he is not the one deciding or signing contracts.

"4) We believe he has it in him to be a great IGL. It will take some time for him to perfect this craft but he has what it takes to succeed - an incredibly keen eye for the game and a level of care for his teammates that is crucial for leadership."